Month: February 2012

Last Saturday I headed to Quayside for some pre birthday fun and I got the chance to wake surf! I’ve only ever done this once, about seven years ago, and I couldn’t let go of the handle without falling in.

For those of you who are not familiar with wake surfing: its surfing on the wave (or wake) created by a wakeboard boat. You use a specially designed short surf board which you get up on using a rope in the same way you would if you were wakeskating as there are no bindings. The aim of the game is to find the sweet spot on the wave and drop the rope so you can surf freely as if surfing a wave in the ocean. SO much fun!

By the end of my session I was trying to get a cutback and was also trying to get enough speed to get some air, I didn’t manage this… next time! I could pump the wave and got a little re-entry, and stacked it a fair amount too!! It was so refreshing to try something new and have to adapt to a new kind of board. I haven’t felt that stoked in a while, you know when you can’t stop smiling and are kinda light headed from so much adrenaline going round your body? Needless to say, I will definitely be heading back to the Quays for more. 🙂

I got the monthly cover on Throw it Down and I’m super stoked! Thanks guys!

For those of you who don’t know, TID is a girls specific wakeboard website run by a bunch of riders from around the globe who are passionate about progressing women’s riding. One of them happens to be Jen GilanFarr who is four times World Wakeskate Champion. It brings you up to date news about whats happening on the girls wake scene, from what comps are on, where the chicks clinics are, the latest edits and much more. It also brings together riders from around the world (the site is based in the US) where they each have an online profile. The best thing is that they love to hear from fellow wakeboarders/wakeskaters and are open to people contributing, so get involved and help push the sport forward!

So happy to be on the cover this month, massive thanks TID! The photo was taken by Nik Green of Watersports World at Wakestock 2011. It was on the pool gap during the mystic photoshoot for the 2012 kit, we then went on to do a night shoot which was fun but scary!

My next training session with KURUP FIT came around and Sharm changed it up again. This week she took me to a gym. I’ve been in a gym once in the past three years maybe, only because my friend took me to zumba which actually turned out to be spinning! I’m not going to lie, I was pretty excited about being beasted round a gym for a morning, and the fact it was going to be warm was very appealing, especially as we usually train outside and its freezing at the moment!

We got straight into a warm up to get everything working properly. We then spent half an hour doing just three exercises that worked the entire body, and I was lifting weights that I would honestly never even think of lifting! The reason these big exercises were done first is because you’re at your peak, if you tried to do them at the end of a work out you just don’t have the same energy levels and so they wouldn’t be as beneficial. After I felt like I had pumped my body up we went through other exercises that focussed on arms and legs while strengthening the core at the same time. We spent time using the balance balls and focussing on the core, which made me nearly hurl! The last thing on the list was for me to have a rowing race against Sharm.. I was like, yeah cool, rowing’s fun.. Well it was fun but hard!! We only raced for six minutes but varied it and ‘sprinted’ during parts of the race. When it was over I actually fell off the rowing machine in exhaustion reaching for my water bottle.. and then had to run at speed to warm down! It was the hardest I’ve ever worked in a gym and I loved every minute of it!

It was good to have a gym session to mix things up from training outside most of the time. I learnt a lot about gym work this session and whats beneficial and whats not. Sharm also knows how to get the most out of a work out and she explains this as you’re training, which I like because I’m interested in knowing the reasons behind why you do things and why its good/bad for you.

I’m hurting today but I’m still looking forward to my next training session!

If you want a trainer who will work with you towards your goals, give you the confidence to do exercises you didn’t think you could do, keep it interesting and fun for you..? Contact Sharm: Kurup Fit – sharmy@kurupfit.co.uk – 07968854397